Most plants must have light in order to grow.  If they go for very long without light, they lose their green color, quit growing, and wilt.  We know that plants need good soil, water and sunshine.  Cultivating and nurturing plants are crucial.

In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah promises that just as the rain makes the land blossom, so, too, will God’s word be fruitful.  “Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, make it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” Is 55:10-11.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells the story of seeds falling in three different places: on the pathway – people who fail to understand the message of salvation; among rocks – people who have a zeal to live according to Gospel values but at the first sign of trouble abandon their faith; on good soil – people receive the Gospel and cultivate and nurture it in their lives.

If you are far away from your faith, know that God is looking for you.  Jesus came to the world to seek those who are lost.  God is like a farmer.  Of course, the farmer wantsto sow his seedonly on a good ground, so that it will be fruitful.  The sower does not like to lose or waste the seeds.  They are the fruits of his work.  They are too precious for him.  Now, you can notice the beautiful cereal fields.  They are the fruits of the sower.  The sower is filled with joy that his works produce fruit.  We are to hear and cultivate the word of God in our lives.  Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say: “If we want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out.  To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.”  Our faith grows from the seeds of God’s love in our hearts.

Father Rafal Duda
Parochial Vicar

The Lord is faithful and holy in all his works.  He lifts up all who are falling and rises up all who are bowed down (Psalm 145).  Our sins are forgiven, and God lifts us up, because of his love for us.

In the first reading, we hear from the prophet Zechariah.  His words offer hope as they tell of how a king will come to Israel, bringing salvation and the promise of peace to all nations.  The second reading calls us to die to sin by the power of the Spirit, so that we may live.  We have freedom of choice, and we can resist the temptation to sin.  We have physical bodies, and we have God’s Spirit within us.  Because of this, the Spirit is alive in us.  The conclusion is that when we sin, all is not lost.  If we focus on the Spirit of God within us, it will help us live more fully and freely.  In the midst of our sinfulness is hope.  We do not have to accept hopelessness because of sin.  Since the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, we can have faith that the same Spirit, who dwells in us, can bring us life as well.  St. Paul reminds us that we have God in us, the Holy Spirit, who gives us strength to help us overcome those sins that keep us from more faithfully serving God and more fully experiencing God’s love.  The power of God is so much greater than our worst offense.  In God, we have life.

In the Gospel, Jesus invites all who are burdened to come to him and find rest.  Why not let Him give you His promise of rest?  All of us are looking for rest and relief from what burdens our hearts and souls.  None of us can escape life’s burdens, but all of us can find Christ’s care and concern.

Fr. Rafal P. Duda
Parochial Vicar

One of my greatest delights, as an African studying at the Graduate Theological Union, is the diversity and wide range of opinion found there.  You share the same lecture room with people whose beliefs are absolutely different from yours, yet you listen and relate to each other with respect and decorum.  Recently, in a class on World Religions, a Protestant colleague in the class remarked: “The greatest problem with you Catholics is that you have a pope, and the greatest problem with us Protestants is precisely because we do not have a pope.”  I found his remark to be very interesting.

Saints Peter and Paul

Today, as Catholics, we celebrate the feast of Saints Peter and Paul.  It is an ancient feast, going back to around the year 250 A.D.  The two are honored because they are the two apostles about whom we know the most.  They were the greatest influence on the Church at its beginning.  As different from each other as chalk is from cheese, Saints Peter and Paul were referred to as “the two pillars of the Church,” “two lanterns” burning for Christ, illuminating the way to heaven.

Few points to note:

(1) A society cannot survive without structure, organization and leadership.  Today’s feast of the apostles Peter and Paul, especially today’s gospel, reminds us of the way Christ structured his Church with Peter as the head.  And this leadership is that of tending, taking care, shepherding, serving.  It is one of “pouring out self” for others, as St Paul echoes in our second reading.  Christians should not therefore be up in arms against leadership, for it is to be for the good of the entire body.

(2) The one who serves God should put his trust in God, and not seek security in money or worldly powers.  The first reading tells us how God rescued Peter from prison because he trusted and served God.  The psalm that follows is a prayer of a person praising God for rescuing them from fear and danger.  We could easily imagine Peter praying this psalm as he left prison.  Money, power, authority and human power,– all these fail.  But God never fails the one who trusts in Him.

(3) There is no one way of serving God.  Peter and Paul were different personalities: Peter was among the first disciples of Jesus, Paul was a later convert.  Peter preached mostly to fellow Jews; Paul went out to the Gentiles.  Paul wrote a lot; Peter was a better administrator.  But both served God to the best of their abilities.  I should be able to do my bit as a small priest from Africa; I must not be Pope.  You must not be a priest, but can be so pleasing in the eyes of God in your workplace.  And at the end of our lives, our song, like Peter and Paul, should be “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Fr. Gabriel Wankar

Priest-in-Residence

Memorial Day is a testimony to the many women and men who have paid a great price for the freedoms and blessings we enjoy as a nation.  Memorial Day is also a testimony to our short memories.  Memorial Day reminds us of how much we owe to others.  Elsewhere in the world, millions of people groan under repressive and corrupt governments that abuse the power and privileges of governance with impunity.  People in such nations have nowhere to seek redress and not even the opportunity to express their pains.  I think one of the worst things we can do for our country and for our own good is to take our blessings for granted.

Jesus gave us the Mass for the same reason we celebrate Memorial Day – because we can quickly forget how we have been blessed through the sacrifice of Jesus, and we quickly forget to be grateful.  He told the apostles (and through them, all of us) at the Last Supper: “Do this in memory of me.”

Today at Mass we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.  Our Mass, though, is more than a simple reminder or remembrance.  Our faith teaches us that at Mass we are mystically connected with Christ’s sacrifice and with the presence of the Risen Christ.  It is interesting that so many people believe the Son of God became human but cannot be really present in the bread and wine, as He promised.  At Christmas, our churches are full and we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Son of God who came down to share human nature.  Yet, some of the same people have difficulty believing God can be present to us in bread and wine.

In our gospel reading Jesus said “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world….”  He went on to say: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”  Some of his disciples found this to be a hard teaching and walked away.  Jesus didn’t call them back and say, “You misunderstood me,” or “I’m just talking symbolically.”  The Eucharist is the real body and blood of Jesus, and the powers of this sacrament have worked wonders of faith in the lives of those who believe in it.  The appearance, the taste, the feel and color remain bread and wine, but the effects of its powers have been proven to be real to those who believe.  What greater gift of love can a person give than their own selves?  May we not take it for granted!

Fr. Gabriel Wankar

Priest-in-Residence

A basic understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity is that Jesus is God, equal to the Father in every way, but not the same as the Father.  The Spirit who comes from the Father and the Son is equal to each of them, and yet not the same as the Father and the Son.  The fundamental elements of Catholic belief in the Trinity come from the teaching of the apostles, the gospels and the letters of St Paul.  However, use of the word “Trinity” to refer to God did not come about until the year 200 AD.  It took another 125 years for this doctrine to be formulated in the Nicene Creed that was drawn up at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD.  This creed is the profession of faith which we proclaim each week.

From the beginning of recorded history, human beings have tried to understand the great power that created the world and all that is in it.  Nations conceptualized this powerful force in ways they could understand.  They pictured gods somewhat like themselves or like animals with divine powers, and they pictured many different gods.  Hindu tradition, for example, holds that there are about 330 million gods.  That would be a job to keep all of them happy.  The Christian God has made life easy for us by telling us there is only one God we must honor.  But this God could never be conceived of if it had not been revealed to us.  A God bursting with so much personality, that there are three persons in God, so closely united in being and power and love that there is only one God.  And that’s the mystery about this God.

Being a mystery, we cannot therefore reduce ideas about God to the questions of science for verifiable answers.  A few ideas to keep in mind about the idea of God as Trinity include:

1. God is in love with us.  God wants us to know him as much as we are capable, and that’s why God came to us in human form in the person of Jesus.  In Jesus, we get to know God better, so we are better able to follow God and spend eternity enjoying God’s presence and God’s love.
2. God is not a lonely monarch, but a family who is full of love and fully fulfilled within God’s own self.  We are loved, not because God is lonely, but because God is so overflowing with love it just pours out to us and we are fulfilled by that love.
3. Through the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, we are able to know Jesus better and have the wonderful honor of sharing his life and being one with him through works of charity, prayer and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.

As a core sign of our identity as Catholic Christians, therefore, it is required that we ALWAYS begin and end all our prayers and gatherings with the Sign of the Cross, expressing our belief in the Trinity: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pentecost is one of the three most important feasts of the Church year.  Christmas is one of the three.  And the feast of Jesus’ resurrection – Easter – is the most important of all three, because if there were no resurrection, we would have no faith or hope at all.  The Jews were celebrating Pentecost 3,000 years ago.  It was one of their three most important feasts.  Originally, it was a harvest feast on which the first fruits were offered in gratitude to God.  It later came to be celebrated as the anniversary of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai.  The word itself means simply 50^th, the 50^th day after the Jewish Passover.  The Jews were celebrating the feast when the Spirit came on Jesus’ followers.  And so Pentecost is still celebrated, but we who are Christians celebrate it as the day on which God sent his Holy Spirit upon the Church.

Pentecost isn’t just the celebration of a past event.  It is important for us today, because the Holy Spirit is important for us today.  The Spirit is hard to picture, because it is like the air, unable to be seen, but something that we cannot live without.  In the waters of Baptism, the Christian receives the Spirit, and water − as you know − gives life.  Nothing lives without it.  Hence Jesus says of the Spirit: “He will guide you to all truth.”  A few examples might help.  If we want to know something about rocks, we go find rocks.  They won’t come to us, and they won’t run away from us.  In no way do they cooperate with us in getting to know them.  The initiative is all on our side if we are to know rocks.  If we want to study wild animals, that’s a little different.  We’ve got to go find them, and they could run away from us.  We have to be very quiet in observing them.  The initiative is mostly on our part if we are to know about wild animals, but they can attempt to prevent us from knowing them.  If we want to know another human being and they are determined for us not to know them, we probably won’t.  We have to win their confidence if they are going to open up to us.  The initiative is equally divided: it takes two to make a friendship.  When it comes to God, there is no way we could find Him or know Him if he didn’t show Himself to us.  And he has done so in Jesus Christ.  But we cannot know Jesus without the help of the Spirit, as St Paul says in our reading: “No one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.”  And if we live by the Spirit, “the Spirit will produce in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.”

Fr. Gabriel Wankar
Priest-in-Residence

Pentecost is one of the three most important feasts of the Church year.  Christmas is one of the three.  And the feast of Jesus’ resurrection – Easter – is the most important of all three, because if there were no resurrection, we would have no faith or hope at all.  The Jews were celebrating Pentecost 3,000 years ago.  It was one of their three most important feasts.  Originally, it was a harvest feast on which the first fruits were offered in gratitude to God.  It later came to be celebrated as the anniversary of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai.  The word itself means simply 50^th, the 50^th day after the Jewish Passover.  The Jews were celebrating the feast when the Spirit came on Jesus’ followers.  And so Pentecost is still celebrated, but we who are Christians celebrate it as the day on which God sent his Holy Spirit upon the Church.

Pentecost isn’t just the celebration of a past event.  It is important for us today, because the Holy Spirit is important for us today.  The Spirit is hard to picture, because it is like the air, unable to be seen, but something that we cannot live without.  In the waters of Baptism, the Christian receives the Spirit, and water − as you know − gives life.  Nothing lives without it.  Hence Jesus says of the Spirit: “He will guide you to all truth.”  A few examples might help.  If we want to know something about rocks, we go find rocks.  They won’t come to us, and they won’t run away from us.  In no way do they cooperate with us in getting to know them.  The initiative is all on our side if we are to know rocks.  If we want to study wild animals, that’s a little different.  We’ve got to go find them, and they could run away from us.  We have to be very quiet in observing them.  The initiative is mostly on our part if we are to know about wild animals, but they can attempt to prevent us from knowing them.  If we want to know another human being and they are determined for us not to know them, we probably won’t.  We have to win their confidence if they are going to open up to us.  The initiative is equally divided: it takes two to make a friendship.  When it comes to God, there is no way we could find Him or know Him if he didn’t show Himself to us.  And he has done so in Jesus Christ.  But we cannot know Jesus without the help of the Spirit, as St Paul says in our reading: “No one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.”  And if we live by the Spirit, “the Spirit will produce in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.”

Fr. Gabriel Wankar
Priest-in-Residence

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

We are approaching Pentecost, the coming of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity who will be with us until the end of time.  As Jesus promised in today’s Gospel: “If you love me and obey my commands, I will ask the Father and He will give you another Paraclete, to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.”  How can we live up with the Holy Spirit?

First of all, we have to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in every moment of our daily lives.  If not, we are not who we are now at this moment!  In looking at our Church history, we should see how the promise of Jesus has been fulfilled.  There were heretics and schismatics who threatened the very continuance of the Church as God’s faithful people on earth.  There were crises and near-catastrophes caused by the human weaknesses of its heads and its members, yet the Church survived and spread and continued to send saints to heaven because of the direct and active aid of the Holy Spirit.  Secondly, we should know and admit our weaknesses and waywardness of human nature; we easily fall into sins and cause death.  God our Father and through the Son sent the Holy Spirit to remain not just with the Church but also within each one of us as the teacher, consoler, protector and guide until the last person has entered heaven.  Thirdly we should believe that the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete or the Spirit of Truth, is a “Real Someone” who helps us, even in the context of a legal trial.  For example, a Paraclete could be a lawyer or a witness on our behalf.  A Paraclete must be convincing to the judge or jury, or He would not help us win the case.  However, the Paraclete whom the Father sends us is not accepted by the world “since it neither sees Him nor recognizes Him.”  Therefore the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, might not help us win our case on earth; rather, He is with us and within us so we will have the strength to remain faithful when unjustly persecuted or condemned.  The Paraclete will make us holy so that on the final judgment day, Jesus the judge will give the verdict: “Well done!  You are a good and faithful servant!  Come, you have my Father’s Blessing!  Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.”

Let us pray together: Come Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.  Please help us be acquitted in the final judgment, even though we may be condemned in the world’s trial.  Praise and glory to the Father who sent us the Holy Spirit.  Praise Jesus who died and came to life again, that He could be Lord of both the dead and the living.  Praise the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; come and renew the face of the earth.

With love,
Fr. Thuong Hoai Nguyen

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I love today’s readings, for two reasons.  First, the letter of Peter reminds us that “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own…”  Second, Jesus promises us in the Gospel: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places…  I go and prepare a place for you..  I will come back again and take you to myself so that where I am you also may be.” Read more…

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In Jesus’ time, the leaders of the Jews, the Pharisees and Sadducees, were false shepherds who tried to prevent the people from following Jesus, but they failed.  They then killed the Shepherd, but in vain.  He rose from the dead and His flock increased by the thousands and will keep increasing until the end of time. Read more…